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Definitions and resources for terms and techniques used in the world of presentations
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When you insert shapes within a PowerPoint slide, you will notice that all shapes you insert contain the same fill. Most of the time, the shapes may contain a solid color fill. Similarly, you may insert hundreds of shapes and they all have this same default fill, have you ever wanted to change this fill to something else?
Before we explore changing fills, it is important to understand that the default fill you see for new, inserted shapes is influenced by the Theme applied to your presentation, all new presentations have a simple Theme applied to them, this Theme decides the default color or style for the new shape. Thus, all new shapes that you insert will have the same fill.
Filed Under:
F
Tagged as: Fills for Shapes, Fills Lines and Effects, PowerPoint Tutorials
Microsoft Office is one of the most popular Office suites released so far by Microsoft. Even after so many years, it continues to be one of the major programs still in use. However, after using the Office programs such as PowerPoint, Word, and Excel repeatedly, there may be times when these applications face some serious issues such as crashes, corrupted files, etc. And in some scenarios, you may not be able to run any Office application. At this point in time, you may wish to perform some magical process that will resolve the issue.
Fortunately there is an easy way to resolve these issues and it’s called a Repair installation.
Filed Under:
R
Tagged as: Interface and Basics, PowerPoint Tutorials, Repair Install Update PowerPoint and Office
While PowerPoint lets you attach a connector to any slide object, these connectors can only be attached to wherever you see an anchor point on the slide object. The good news is that you can add new anchor points for shapes and text boxes. For text placeholders though, you cannot add new anchor points. If you need more anchor points for pictures, it is suggested that you use any shape as a container for a picture fill, and add anchor points as required for the container shape. We have now established that you can add new anchor points for shapes (and text boxes) so that your connectors can be linked to exactly where you want them to be!
Filed Under:
C
Tagged as: Connectors, PowerPoint Tutorials, Shapes
PowerPoint provides plenty of options to format Shape Outlines, and this tutorial explores an attribute that’s rarely associated with shape outlines but can provide a surprisingly different look, especially when applied to lines that are thicker in weight. This attribute, Gradient Outlines is not accessible from the Shape Outline gallery in the Ribbon but directly from the Format Shape Task Pane.
Filed Under:
O
Tagged as: Fills Lines and Effects, Outlines (Lines) for Shapes, PowerPoint Tutorials
By default, all text that you add within PowerPoint may be filled up with a solid color. And while that’s predictable and good, there are some other options that you may want to explore, especially for title text or anything that uses text in a larger point size. One alternative is text filled with a gradient—this can look contemporary and classic, or even ghastly and gaudy!
Filed Under:
W
Tagged as: PowerPoint Tutorials, Text and Fonts, WordArt
There are so many shapes in PowerPoint, from the basic Rectangle and Oval to the fancy Pie and Smiley Face! You can use these shapes as they are, or you can use the Merge Shape commands to create your own unique shapes. However, even if you do not create new shapes, there are some existing shapes that can be used in myriad ways. One of these is the Arc shape, that we will explore today. The Arc shape is quite easy to use, and in fact, you’ll find so much similarity between how the Arc and the Pie shapes appear and work—and some difference too.
Filed Under:
A
Tagged as: Advanced Shape Techniques, PowerPoint Tutorials, Shapes
Font size does make a difference for the aesthetics of your slide, but what do you do if the text itself uses more or less space than you may want? Sometimes, you may want the text to take just a wee bit lesser space so that all content can fit within two lines rather than three. If you would like to alter the spacing between text characters, you can do so by using PowerPoint’s Character Spacing option, which affects the appearance and readability of both title and body text. Essentially Character Spacing is the amount of space in-between individual letters. You can easily adjust this spacing for a cleaner look or to make more or less text fit within any text container.
Filed Under:
T
Tagged as: PowerPoint Tutorials, Text and Fonts, Text Formatting
PowerPoint provides so many basic shapes within the Shapes gallery. All of these shapes can be used in many ways, and that in itself works most of the time. Yet there are plenty of other shapes that are not provided within the Shapes gallery but you can easily modify an existing shape a wee bit to end up with something you need. A semi-circle is a perfect example of such a shape.
Filed Under:
C
Tagged as: Circles and Squares, PowerPoint Tutorials, Shapes
If PowerPoint represents something more than anything else, it is the slide—and while you can use a white slide bereft of any graphic treatment, more often than not you will want to use something else. That’s because the background elements of a slide are a representation of the brand of your company, or even an expression of your personality.
In PowerPoint parlance, the background is just one choice that you must make to create that complete appearance. You will also need to explore fonts, colors, effects, slide layouts, and more. And all of these elements must work together to create and represent a cohesive brand. Here, we only explore backgrounds, and more importantly how you would create them within Adobe Photoshop.
Filed Under:
O
Tagged as: Other Tutorials, PowerPoint Tutorials, Themes Templates Masters and Layouts
PowerPoint allows you to customize the Ribbon in a number of ways. You can add Ribbon tabs, add Groups, and populate these with commands. And if you think you made a mess and were better off with the defaults, then you can always get back to square one. On a more positive front, you can share your customizations with friends and colleagues, or also your other computers. And you can export your customizations to a file saved as a backup for a rainy day!
Filed Under:
W
Tagged as: Interface and Basics, PowerPoint Tutorials, Working with QAT and Ribbons
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